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Death knight builds
' This page will only contain basic PARTIAL builds per tree consisting of a PvE, PvP, and leveling build and any suggested full builds will be on a separate DK sample page. Look at the Paladin pages for a very good example. ' Instructions to WoWWiki editors: In order to keep this page precise and concise, please DO NOT add complete builds here. For those who are interested in contributing their own builds, please add them to the Death knight build samples. All builds currently on this page will be removed by the end of December. Blood Talents in this tree focus on physical damage-dealing abilities, such as Blood Presence. Blood PvE Builds Blood PvP Builds Blood Leveling Builds 3.0.2 [http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfEMqh0Isf0zzAo Basic PvE Leveling Spec Level 61 (52/0/0)] A Blood Death Knight will rely on physical damage while having above average self-healing abilities to improve survivability. This is more obvious with investing in Vampiric Blood and Rune Tap, and as you level up Improved Rune Tap. You will gain expertise and strength bonuses by investing in Veteran of the Third War, Abomination's Might, and Blood Gorged. However, a Blood Death Knight will shine the best when combining his Death Strike with Bloody Strikes, Dark Conviction, Subversion and Might of Mograine — even more when the Death Knight has Glyph of Death Strike and take full advantage of Blood Gorged by keeping himself at full health the majority of time. Example of useful rotations: :Plague Strike -> Icy Touch -> Heart Strike -> Heart Strike -> Obliterate -> Death Coil -> Plague Strike -> Icy Touch -> Heart Strike -> Heart Strike -> Heart Strike -> Heart Strike -> Death Coil :Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Death Strike -> Heart Strike -> Heart Strike -> Death Coil -> Obliterate -> Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Heart Strike -> Heart Strike -> Heart Strike -> Heart Strike -> Death Coil -> Obliterate -> Death Coil Suggested Major Glyphs :Glyph of Death Strike :Glyph of Vampiric Blood Suggested Minor Glyphs :Glyph of Pestilence :Glyph of Horn of Winter '''Please see the Death knight build samples page for more helpful Blood Build Samples Frost Talents in this tree focus on spells and control, such as Frost Presence. Frost is a tree built for critical burst damage. This can be seen in the tree's talents. Frost PvE Builds 3.0.8 Frost DPS Skeleton Frost death knight DPS is based around Obliterate, Blood Strike and Frost Strike on the main target, with Howling Blasts for AOE or when the death knight cannot get close. Blood Strike is used mainly to convert Blood Runes into Death Runes that can be used to Obliterate or Howling Blast next time around the rotation. Hungering Cold is a good solo and possibly tanking talent, but not for DPS, so is often skipped. There are two main choices for where to put the rest of the points. One is to put them mostly in Blood and take Dark Conviction, Bladed Armor and Killing Machine, the other is to put them entirely in Unholy for the very powerful Summon Gargoyle. Frost PvP Builds Frost Leveling Builds '''3.0.2 [http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jZGxxthxdohoVosx Basic PvE Leveling spec Level 61 (0/52/0)] As stated before, a Frost Death Knight will rely on spells, control and burst damage, for that Icy Talons is a must; Annihilation also is needed so you can use Obliterate in your rotation for high damage without consuming the diseases on the target. Deathchill is preferred over Hungering Cold at this point for any melee hit will unfreeze the targets and Howling Blast will be your AoE bread and butter attack. Avoid attacks that use much runic power until you can spend some points into Runic Power Mastery in the Frost Tree or Butchery in the Blood Tree. Example of useful rotations: :Plague Strike -> Icy Touch -> Blood Strike -> Blood Strike -> Obliterate -> Frost Strike -> Icy Touch -> Obliterate -> Obliterate -> Frost Strike :Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Blood Strike -> Blood Strike -> Obliterate --> Frost Strike -> Obliterate -> Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Obliterate -> Frost Strike -> Obliterate -> Frost Strike -> Obliterate Suggested Major Glyphs :Glyph of Icebound Fortitude :Glyph of Frost Strike :Glyph of Death Strike Suggested Minor Glyphs :Glyph of Pestilence :Glyph of Horn of Winter '''Please see the Death knight build samples page for more helpful Frost Build Samples. Dual Wielding Frost is generally considered the only tree viable for dual wielding. The reason being that all 'strikes' such as Heart Strike, Scourge Strike, Obliterate, etc are heavily dependent on weapon damage, and only the main hand weapon is taken into account. The only talent based attack that is not based on weapon damage is Howling Blast, so it only really makes sense to base dual wield DPS builds around that. Dual Wield Skeleton The general strategy is to pick up all talents that increase auto-attack damage or that proc on auto-attacks, and that improve Howling Blast. Must-have talents for a dual wield build are: *Howling Blast *Nerves of Cold Steel *Killing Machine *Icy Talons *Necrosis *Blood-Caked Blade From here it is the player's choice to take extra talents in Blood, Frost or Unholy. In Blood Bladed Armor and Dark Conviction are good choices. In Frost there is Frost Strike (which is still an upgrade on Death Coil despite the weapon damage disadvantage), Blood of the North, Guile of Gorefiend and Tundra Stalker. In Unholy there is Summon Gargoyle, Impurity and Reaping. Unholy Talents in this tree have a variety of functions including summons, diseases, and PvP-focused abilities, such as Unholy Presence. Unholy PvE Builds Unholy PvP Builds Unholy Leveling Builds 3.0.2 [http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jZZfM0Ibfogcq0csuu Basic PvE Leveling spec Level 61 (0/0/52)] Example of useful rotations: :Plague Strike -> Icy Touch -> Death Strike -> Blood Boil -> Blood Boil -> Obliterate :Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Scourge Strike -> Blood Strike -> Blood Strike -> Death Coil -> Scourge Strike -> Death Coil -> Scourge Strike -> Scourge Strike -> Death Coil :Plague Strike -> Icy Touch -> Blood Strike -> Blood Strike -> Scourge Strike -> Scourge Strike -> Scourge Strike -> Scourge Strike -> Death Coil Suggested Major Glyphs :Glyph of Death Strike :Glyph of Scourge Strike :Glyph of Bone Shield Suggested Minor Glyphis :Glyph of Pestilence :Glyph of Horn of Winter Please see the Death knight build samples page for more helpful Unholy Build Samples. Tanking See Death Knights as Tanks for more info. Even though each of the 3 trees is capable of tanking, that is only true if you have the appropriate talents within your tree. Tier 1 tanking talents are available to everyone: Blade Barrier, Anticipation, and Toughness. Then, depending on what tree you specialize in, you can pick up additional tanking talents. Blood Tanking Blood Tank Skeleton Notable talents in the Blood tree are: *Blade Barrier *Vampiric Blood *Veteran of the Third War - excellent value per point for tanking. *Will of the Necropolis *Rune Tap *Mark of Blood *Might of Mograine - for stronger Death Strikes Blood tanks use Heart Strike as their primary strike, with Obliterate or Death Strike as their second. Blood tanks have good single (and double thanks to heart strike) target threat but are lacking in true AOE threat. Most Blood tanks will take Annihilation in the frost tree to make Obliterate much more convenient to use. Blood Gorged is not recommended because you will not be at full health most of the time. Dancing Rune Weapon is considered a poor tanking talent. Frost Tanking Frost Tank Skeleton Notable talents in the Frost tree are: *Toughness *Improved Icy Touch *Unbreakable Armor - arguably the best single tank ability. *Lichborne - besides mitigation this also allows you to heal yourself with Death Coils. *Frigid Dreadplate *Guile of Gorefiend - greatly improves Icebound Fortitude and improves Death Strike. *Howling Blast - good AOE threat ability. *Tundra Stalker - for expertise. The Frost tree has the best mitigation talents of the three. Big bonuses to Obliterate give decent single target threat, alternatively Howling Blast can be used for AOE threat. Frost Strike is a major upgrade over Death Coil for dumping runic power for even more single target threat. Hungering Cold is hotly debated as a tanking ability. Death and Decay will break it, and Pestilence is just as good at spreading Frost Fever. This talent is especially skipped for raid tanks because most raid level enemies cannot be frozen. Unholy Tanking Unholy Tank Skeleton Notable talents in the Unholy tree are: *Anticipation *Morbidity - HALVES the cooldown on Death and Decay. *Vicious Strikes - a nice and easily accessible upgrade to Death Strike. *Bone Shield *Shadow of Death *Crypt Fever - counts as an extra disease, which hugely increases Death Strike healing. *Anti-Magic Zone - situational but when it's useful it's usually very very useful. *Unholy Blight - excellent AOE threat *Wandering Plague - more AOE threat *Master of Ghouls - you're much more likely to have him around when you really need to Death Pact. *Rage of Rivendare - for expertise. Unholy tanks have far and away the best AOE threat abilities of the three, with upgraded diseases, Unholy Blight and Corpse Explosion. Unholy tanks will have a greatly improved Death Strike, but Scourge Strike is not as strong as the competition, so single target threat generation is lower than the others. Unholy tanks have amazing magic mitigation if they invest in Magic Suppression and Anti-Magic Zone. See Also * Death knight build samples: Contains WoWWiki users submitted complete death knight builds. Category:Guides Category:Death knight talents Category:Wrath of the Lich King